PROGRESS OF PUBLICATION.

WELCOME, WORDSWORTH, IO the list of popular poets ! His works are worthy to range beside BURNS and BYRON, COWPER and CRABBE, with which this republication in monthly volumes is intended to correspond. WORDSWORTH'S progress to public favour has been gradual and slow, but be has taken sure hold.

BveoN's mystery and intensity startled people into admiration,

and he kept their enthusiasm alive by constant excitement of a varied kind. WORDSWORTH'S simple lays have won their way to the heart of his readers, and insensibly twined themselves round the sympathies of some of those even who twenty years ago smiled at their puerilities of style, and affected to doubt or despise their homely pathos. That deep vein of philosophic reflection and poetic sentiment which is the ore of WORDSWORTH'S genius, was not perceived by the many amid the common clay of rustic life; but when it received the form and impress of classic beauty, in which shape the poet has sometimes embodied his inspirations, its sterling worth was recognized. WORDSWORTH'S imagination being more meditative than creative, brooding over fancies at home, and picturing quiet scenes and unsophisticated characters with the simplicity of elementary truth, does not produce strong excitement enough in its effect upon the mind to appeal to the vulgar, or such as seek in books lively entertainment and stirring interest to beguile the weary intervals of business and pleasure. "Fit though few" must always be the characteristic of WORDS- WORTH'S audience.

It is proposed to embrace in the six volumes the productions that appeared in the last publication, called " Yarrow Revisited ;" so that this edition will include the whole of the poet's works. The present volume contains the " Poems referring to the period of Childhood ;" those " Founded on the Affections," and the "De- scriptive Sketches ;" and as the "Waggoner" is added, all the peculiarities of WORDSWORTH'S style will be found in this volume. The portrait of the author, by PICKERSGILL, represents the fea- tures truly ; but the attempt to convey their expression is not suc- cessful. The printing and general getting-up of the edition display the bibliographical taste which distinguishes Mr. Moxos.

A short sojourn at an obscure Irish bathing-place does not appear to promise materials for a book; yet we have found

• much to interest and amuse in MARY JOHN KNOTT'S Nar- rative of a Residence of Two Months at Kilkee, a watering- place in the county Clare, near the mouth of the Shannon. The wildness of the scene—the strange and fantastic shapes of the rocks and cliffs in the neighbourhood—the primitive cha- racter and mode of life of the inhabitants, who though poor are content, honest, sober, kindly, and religious—combine to give freshness to the subject. The piety and benevolence of the au- thoress, too, as well as her love of nature and of scientific investi- gation, impart a delightful character to the descriptions; and the publication of this volume will, we dare say, make the next season of Kilkee a brilliant one. Besides the national curiosities and peculiarities of the place,—its sea-birds, cliffs and caverns, marine beauties, antiquities, and half-civilized population,—there are the beauties of the Shannon ; the natural bridges of Ross, where Nature seems to have taken a freak to rival the architect in neat- ness of workmanship, as well as to surpass him in skilful con- struction; the caves of Ballybunian, on the opposite coast of Kerry—halls for Neptune and his train ; the cliffs of Moher, where rocks are piled up as if in mockery of the law of gravita- tion ; the Druidical inscription in secret writing on the stone at Ogham, which covers the bones of "Conan the Fierce ;" -and other curiosities of art and nature. The descriptions are enli- vened with anecdotes and traits of character, illustrative of the habits and feelings of the people. Their ordinary food is potatoes, and these often bad ; bread is a luxury little known ; and an edible kind of sea-weed is often the substitute even for potatoes. Yet they are grateful arid happy. They live principally by fishing ; and the occupation of women, children, and old men, is gathering sea- weed for manure, and carrying it into the fields. They use canoes of wicker-work or light frames of wood, covered with canvas smeared with pitch, which they guide very expertly with a pad- dle in each hand. The cottages have their roofs tied down with straw ropes, or kept on with stones, as in Switzerland. Neat en- gravings of the natural bridges and other curious objects, illus- trate the descriptions.

The Church and Dissent, Considered in their Practical Irylu- ence, by EDWARD OSLER, we have no recollection of seeing. It appears, however, to have reached the class of readers to whose mental calibres it was addressed ; and the Bath Conservative As- sociation were so delighted with the lucubration, as to request its reissue in a periodical form ; with which the author has complied, and christened his serial Church and King. The points sought to be established by this medley of absurdities are fit, in secu- lar matters, for the most servile Churchman under the most tyrannous of the STUARTS, and go beyond them in religious bi- gotry. On the first point, Mr. OSLER out-HOYSICyS HORSLEY; holding, in effect, that the people have nothing to do with laws but to obey them ; that government is of divine origin, (BOB FILMER passim); and that if it orders any thing contrary to the laws of God, the subject, provided he is " very sure that his motives are such as the Bible justifies," may—not resist, but decline compliance, and bear the penalty of refusal. In religion, Mr. OSLER maintains that the doctrines of the Church of England only are to be found in Scripture ; but lie also asserts, that her form of church government is of divine appointment, and that her episcopacy has descended to her from the Apostles,—whether through the Pope of Rome or the Patriarch of Constantinople, he does not determine. With this folly he has also fury enough to light the fires of Smithfield or revive the persecutions of LAUD, if the age were favourable. He holds that Dissent is contrary to the law of God, which deviation no plea of conscience can justify; for " no man can be suffered to be a law unto him- self." The Dissenter may safely conform to the Church; the Churchman perils his soul who has any spiritual communion with a Dissenter. " Popery is a branch of the Christian Church, utterly corrupt, it is true, but, possessing the orders and the apos- tolic succession of the ministry, salvation is attainable in her com- munion." The Voluntary principle, on the contrary, is flat rebel- lion against God, and strikes at the foundation of society itself. But enough of Church and King. Under the STUARTS such impious dogmas were so behind the age that they ruined even them : they are, happily, now vox et preeterea nikil.

Dr. HENRY DUNCAN'S Sacred Philosophy of ,the Seasons, is a very able compilation, full of interesting facts, collected with judgment, and applied not without skill. The purpose of the undertaking is to illustrate the wisdom and beneficence of God in the phenomena of the year. The subject of the first volume is winter ; and the plan is in a measure founded upon that of STURM in the division of the matter into daily lessons. By this means, the reverend Doctor readily accomplishes one of his objects, which was to combine revelation with natural theology. Six days does he labour upon arguments drawn from science and observa- tion,—as the general arrangements of the elements of earth, and of the adaptation of animals and vegetables to the regions they are placed in ; the wonders displayed in the planetary system ; the hybernation of vegetable and animated life ; and the various phe- nomena attending frost, &c. On the seventh day lie quits philo- sophy for divinity, and puts forth a discourse on some approved theological topic, which would reflect credit on a pulpit.

The Evils which may arise to the Constitution of Great Britain from the Influence of a too Powerful Nobility, purports to be a publication from the original manuscript of a discourse preached before the University of Cambridge in 1789. The reverend author appears to have been so far in advance of his age, as to snuff clearly the dangers that might arise from the House of Lords, although lie did not perceive the exact shape in which they would appear. The name of the preacher is not disclosed ; and no ac- count is given of the reasons which delayed the publication for nearly half a century, and have now induced it. At the same time, there seems no reason to doubt its authenticity. It has the method and labour of fifty years ago ; and any one inclined for a hoax, would have been a more specific prophet.

A Tablet of Juvenile Memory, by Mrs. H. PEILE, is in reality only arranged and edited by that lady, having been compiled by her pupils, after a process much more likely to impress facts upon their memory than upon those who read their productions. The method of applying the scholastic division of labour seems to have been thus—One class of little ladies was set to find out three striking events in any given period from any given book : the " missee " to whom Egypt was assigned, took up the Pyramids ; she who had England, HENRY the Sixth; and from the silver age of the Roman Empire ADRIAN was selected for another. This pro- duced such results as the following passages,—curious, no doubt, and many are more so; but how they can artificially improve the memory, it is difficult to see, although the facts are numerous,and run from threes up to twelves. Three celebrated Kings of Egypt built the Pyramids ; viz. Cheops, Asychus, and Chypremicis.

Three principal events in the reign of Henry the Sixth : first, raising of the siege of Orleans ; second, the loss of Fiance ; third, the dreadful civil wars be- tween the Houses of York and Lancaster.

Three great men lived in the reign of Adrian,—Arrian, Ptolemy, and Antinous.

Contrast, or the History of a Day, is a narrative of the manner in which a good boy and a naughty boy pass their time. It is written in an amiable spirit and with good intentions, but is too like the thousand-and-one' tales of a similar kind, to call for com- ment, unless we say that some of the words are too hard for the tone in which the tale is pitched, and fur the class of readers for whom it is intended.

The Juvenile Every-Day Book is an entertaining miscellany of amusement and information, in the shape of anecdotes, old cus- toms, curious facts in natural history, antiquarian, historical, and biographical notices, poetry and narratives, and descriptions in prose. These are not arranged appropriately to each day of the year, as the title would import ; but some regard is had to the seasons, and accounts are given of the months aird the various holydays. The numerous cuts, selected from the Mirror and other 'rim Report of the Select Committee on Arts and Manufactures is publications, make it an attractive present for schoolboys. now printed, with the Evidence complete. It is interesting as being the " You would therefore think that a great step would lie taken, if we imitated the example of France and other foreign countries in as much as possible encou- raging the opening of museums, concentrating the copies of our great works of art throughout the large towns ?"—" The first object is, that museums should be numerous, should collect every thing that is most beautiful and perfect in art, The plot and action of The Dalesman, a drama, are a tissue of or copies and models of what is most beautiful and perfect, and when those re- tame improbabilities, the incidents of which never rise higher than cognized models are so collected, that the doors should be opened as widely as to a melodramatic situation. The characters partake of similar possible to the public at large." faults, being either lifeless or exaggerated; and the dialogue, it may be conjectured from these breaks-down, is as little dramatic as may be. It is, however, smooth enough in its flow, and some- times reaches prettiness, when the author, as is his custom, stops his play to introduce reflections or descriptions.

In No. VIII. of the Library of Fiction, JERROLD relates the history of "John Horner, the man with the plums," celebrated in the nursery rhyme for the self-complacency with which he sat in a snug corner munching mince-pie. The hero begins life in the humble condition of a pedlar's boy, and ultimately rises to the dignity of a Stockjobber and Tax-gatherer, and lives to boast of having found "a plum" of gold. The story is capitally brought out ; with a sarcastic humour, epigrammatic smartness of dialogue, and graphic description. It is full of fun, fancy, and feeling.

Boz has opened a mine of legendary anecdotes in the Inns of Court, which he is exploring with most amusing effect in the Pickwick Club. In No. VIII. is "The Queer Client;" a power- fully-written story, with some forcible touches of passion and ,_pathos, and vivid description; though the incidents are too much of the melodramatic order.

The Fifteenth Volume of the Naturalist's Library is devoted to Parrots; and besides upwards of thirty beautifully-coloured plates of pretty polls, with the usual accounts of the genus and species, contains a new but rather spiritless life of BINVICK, and a speak- ing portrait of the great engraver. The Parents' Guide for the Mental and Physical Education of their Children, by CHARLES WALT., is a sensible little manual of directions for the rearing of infants, and the medical and moral management of children up to the age of six years. It conveys some excellent information and advice, whose soundness is obvious to common sense, and is, moreover, stamped with the authority of many eminent writers. This little book is calculated to be abun- dantly useful. We, however, miss the materials for instruction alluded to in the opening address.

FRASER has published a little volume, under the title of Songs and Lyrical Poems, by ROBERT STORY. It is a second edition— the first having (as the author states in an advertisement) been exhausted in less than a fortnight. Mr. STORY is a Tory of the most bigoted sort ; and the rabid effusions to the tune of "No Popery," and "The Church in danger," which we fell in with at the beginning of his volume, had nearly made us throw it aside, when we lighted upon sonic verses the sweetness and simplicity of which made us look further. We found a number of pieces re- markable for their natural turn of expression and the absence of the artificial prettinesses of the " Annual " school ; breathing, too, a soft and gentle spirit, as unlike as possible to that which he seems to have thought pro; er - to assume, of a fierce political zealot. Should Mr. STORY continue to exercise his muse, we would advise him to eschew party politics ; with which, in truth, poetry has nothing to do.

MARY HOWITT'S Tales in Terse, though not so uniformly happy in conception and finished in execution as her delightful Sketches of Natural History, are, nevertheless, full of amusement, instruc- tion, kindly feeling, and poetic beauty. They consist of little narratives and descriptions, some serious and others humorous, calculated by their subject and mode of treatment to interest the young reader. For what age of childhood they are designed, does not appear. The manner is infantine in its simplicity, while the allusions and reflections are adapted for maturer comprehension. The authoress, in her endeavours to assume a plain diction, some- times uses familiar words in a sense to which children are unac- customed ; so that the idea is made indistinct by the effort to make its expression clear. Homoeopathy Examined, is a brief brochure from GALIOMANt'S press, which opposes the new doctrine, in a somewhat lofty and dogmatical manner. Its best points are—that the homeopathic practice, stripped of its minute doses, is merely the alterative mode of practice; that disease by philosophic physicians is not con- sidered as an actual entity, but as an aberration of some function or functions of the system The Eighth Volume of SOUTHEY'S Cowper commences the Poems, and contains, besides the pieces.common to all editions, the verses addressed to his cousin, his first and only love, as well as a satire upon another cousin of the male kind, which the editor appears to have discovered by accident.

COMMIT'S Legacy to Peel consists of a reprint of the Six Letters to Sir ROBERT, that were addressed to him in the Register shortly before the meeting of the Parliament that turned PEEL out, and which his son has sent forth in a neat black binding.